This invention relates to a face guard accessory for a motorcycle rider's helmet for shielding the nose, mouth and lower portions of the face from flying debris of both large and small size while permitting free breathing. More particularly the invention relates to such a face guard of easily adjustable and removable structure.
In some forms of motorcycle riding, particularly in off-road or cross-country competition or recreational riding and even on paved roads where good maintenance is lacking, the rider experiences sprays of rock, dirt, foliage, dust and similar particles directed at his face, many times propelled at high velocity by the wheels of other motorcycles or vehicles in front of him. While goggles adequately protect his eyes from such debris, the lower portion of his face, primarily the lower nose, mouth and chin areas, are normally exposed to such hazards because the rider's need for sufficient air passage to the nose and mouth also provides a path by which the debris can gain access to the lower face area. This exposure sometimes causes facial injuries where the debris is of relatively large size such as gravel and strikes with relatively high velocity. A substantially lesser hazard, but still a nuisance, is the clogging of the nasal and oral cavities with fine debris such as dust or grit.
While face guards of many different types have in the past been developed for protecting persons from various hazards, none has previously been developed which is of sufficient technical, convenient and reliable design to offer a motorcycle rider adequate protection from the foregoing hazard of facial injuries caused by flying debris of substantial size and velocity. For example athletic face guards of the type shown for example in Bednarczuk U.S. Pat. No. 3,815,152 and Sowle U.S. Pat. No. 2,908,911, while adequate for their intended purpose of shielding the lower portion of the face from blows, are totally inadequate to shield the nose and mouth of a motorcycle rider from airborne particles of either gross or fine size. On the other hand, face masks of the type shown in Rogowski U.S. Pat. No. 3,152,588 or Langdon U.S. Pat. No. 3,276,445, while providing nose and mouth protection from fine airborne particles, would be inadequate to shield the lower portion of the face from flying particles of larger size such as gravel, twigs and rocks which, when impelled with high velocity against the face mask, would easily puncture the filtering material employed.
In addition, previous types of face guards or masks are either not adaptable to fit on helmets or, if adaptable, are either too easily dislodgeable and pop off the helmet during use, or are too difficult to remove or adjust with respect to the helmet. Difficult removal presents a problem with this type of guard because of the necessity to remove the guard frequently from the helmet. In order for the guard to be able to perform its protective functions adequately it must be placed reasonably close to the face, which however may require its removal or adjustment in order to remove the helmet from the user's head. Moreover the degree of closeness must be easily adjustable to enable the wearer to breathe comfortably under varying riding conditions.
Accordingly a need exists for a face guard of the type described which will satisfy the needs of a motorcycle rider with respect to protection particularly from the foregoing hazard of facial injury while still providing comfortable breathing and easy adjustability and removability.